we explored what our lives will be like according to what we see in scripture. Will we be ourselves in the sense of being unique individuals? We explored things like how the Bible indicates we will know specific individuals in eternity like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Bible indicates we will have emotional responses in heaven. There are good indications we will learn things in heaven. We will still be decision making beings but we will not want to sin or go against God, because of this we will be safe from ever sinning. We explored a bit of what our daily lives might be like. We will probably have meaningful work much like Adam had work in the garden of Eden before the fall. We will have a place God has prepared for us as individuals, which implies we will be able to invite people to our place and go to the place of other people.

Jesus was a living man, not a spirit or some kind of allusion. The Resurrection was testified to over and over by the disciples of Christ. Jesus wants His people to know that He is indeed raised and is with us now and also at God's right hand.

The Resurrection of Jesus shows the power of Christ over death. Jesus was the perfect man who was sacrificed so that we could have life abundantly. The sacrificing of lambs at Passover is a picture that has been pointing forward to the person of Christ since it began in the book of Exodus. Christ's Death and Resurrection is the complete work that defeats every foe. All we need because of His resurrection is to recognize Jesus as our Lord. Everyone who was resurrected eventually died again, but Jesus never died again and never will. He is our forever hope and salvation.

We were looking at the end of Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the temple. What we saw as we worked through his last 3 petitions was Solomon interceded for the gentiles who would be coming to worship the God of Israel. This had to be a radical idea to the Jews who saw themselves as God’s chosen people. They were quick to point out their superiority and part of this was the history of God’s intervention on their behalf even against other people. But God’s promises to Abraham included the promise to draw all the nations to God through Israel. Solomon’s prayer really reinforces this idea and sees it at least being fulfilled in part through worship at the temple. Then Solomon turns his attention to God granting them victory in battle if the people turn to God and call on Him. And finally Solomon ends his prayer by pointing out how the people are bound to sin because we all sin. He asks God to grant them forgiveness even if they are carried away to a foreign land. He asks God to hear them and to grant them favor with their captors if they seek Him and repent. This of course is what we all need to do on a regular basis. We are the foreigners who have gathered to worship today, and part of our gathering is to bring Him glory and to point people to Him.

We explored what the resurrected or new earth will be like according to what we see in scripture. We will have a central capital city called the New Jerusalem. As we examined Revelation 21 and 22 it is clear this city is described as having walls and gates. There are nations mentioned and people are said to bring things into the New Jerusalem from the nations. This indicates there will be rulers and trade will be conducted. The measurements given for the new Jerusalem are stated as being human measurements which places an emphasis on these measurements being actual and not symbolic. The gates of the city are always open which suggest everyone has access to the city all the time. This is important because it means everyone will always have access to the tree of life and the river of life which are both in the city. The idea of open gates also suggest we will travel and visit other areas. In the record John gives in Revelation he states the angel carried him away to a great high mountain which points out how geographically there will be features like mountains in the new earth. This also means there will probably be other features of the new earth which will carry over from the earth we see here. We should expect if there are rivers like the river of life then there will probably also be lakes. The new earth may not be covered with the massive oceans we have now because the Bible states there is no more sea. This too may be because the new earth is free from sin and water is symbolic of cleansing and judgement. Since it is free from sin and death the massive need for judgement and cleansing which is certainly symbolized by the massive ocean is no longer necessary. But water is also life giving and Jesus calls Himself the living water so it makes sense that we would still have water as a symbol of blessing but we will no longer need it as a massive symbol of judgement.

We have been working our way through Solomon’s prayer of dedication at the temple. The contents of His prayer is interesting because it really seems to reflect what we know about the heart of God. Solomon appears to be moved by God to say what he is saying. His prayer began with a request for justice. There is clearly a dependence expressed here on God bringing justice to the people when no one on earth actually knows the truth in a given situation. Solomon does not detail how God would bring that justice but he asks God to be the one who brings justice to His people. Second Solomon prays for rescue. He demonstrates an understanding of how depraved the hearts of men are. Solomon’s prayer supposes a situation when the people of God are defeated by their enemies, much like they were at AI. For the people of God this kind of defeat is directly related to their sin. Solomon does not suggest this might or might not happen. But rather Solomon says when this happens, declaring it in a way which presupposes this is going to happen. Solomon asks God to be merciful to the people and if the people repent after defeat and turn again to God, Solomon asks God to hear them and forgive them and restore them back to the land He gave to their fathers. Third Solomon imagines God will bring judgement on the people in the form of judgement on the land. A drought is understood by Solomon to be from God as a judgement on sin. Again his request is for God to be merciful to the people and forgive them when they repent and turn from their sin and restore the land and bring rain. The fourth thing we looked at last time was a series of items which we would normally put in the category of natural occurrences. Solomon does not see them as natural. He sees them connected clearly to sin. Yet when we see things like, famine, pestilence, blight, mildew, locust, caterpillar, the enemy at the gate, plague, or sickness we don’t usually connect these things to signs from God that we need to repent, but Solomon did. He prayed the people would repent and God would forgive them. Does this mean every time we see something like this it is a judgement on sin? no. When we look back at Job he clearly was not suffering sickness for a specific sin. But if we saw everything as coming from God we would be driven to examine our hearts. Perhaps we would be driven to reflect more on God and our need to depend on Him more. Certainly our problem is not that we depend on God too much. We could use these things as opportunities to seek to depend on God more.

We looked at the point in the consecration of the temple when Solomon turned and blessed all the assembly of Israel. He talked about the faithfulness of God. How He delivered His people from the land of Egypt. How He set David up to be king over His people. How David wanted to build God a house, but God told him he could not. But how God had promised David his son would build a house for God. Solomon David’s son has done the work God promised he would and has built a house for God. Solomon points out how this house holds the ark which contains the covenant God had made with His people. Solomon stands before the altar of the temple and begins to pray to God. He talks to God about the fact that there is no God like the God of Israel. The God of Israel is a God who keeps His covenant promises and shows steadfast love to His servants who walk before Him with all their heart. He then talks about the promise God made to David that he would not lack a man to sit before God on the throne of Israel. Solomon recalls how this is a conditional promise because in it David’s sons are to walk before God as David has. This is not saying that all of David’s sons need to be perfect. David was certainly not perfect, but David has a heart which turns to God consistently.

We worked our way through the dedication of the temple. This was a huge event. A once in a lifetime kind of happening. Solomon assembled all the key leaders of the tribes and the families to come and be present. Of course many of them would have brought their families and children if they could. This was one of the biggest gatherings which had even happened in Jerusalem. The ceremonies started with the ark of the covenant being brought up from the city of David to the temple mount. This was done with so many sacrifices that they could not be numbered. This had to be quite a few because earlier in 1 Kings we saw Solomon offering a thousand sacrifices. So this was way more then that. This was what was going on as they placed the ark of the covenant in the temple in the holy of holies under the wings of the cherubim. The ark only held the two tablets of stone which were inscribed with the law of God. This was the covenant God had made with His people. The law showed the people how they fell short of God’s perfection. The whole sacrificial system highlighted how death was necessary in order for us to be able to be made right with God. It was only death which could restore fellowship. Yet in the midst of all this death bringing God’s covenant into God’s house we see God’s glory. His glory so filled the temple the priest could not even enter it. This is incredible because it is the same thing we see when the ark was placed in the tabernacle and the same thing we see when Jesus is filled with God’s glory and is transfigured before the disciples. Solomon then declared how the Lord dwells in thick darkness. This is a good thing because God dwells with His people and He hides His manifest presence from them so they will not be destroyed by Him. Solomon declares he has built for God an exalted house a place for him to dwell in forever.

We worked through the way in which God administers the rulership of His coming kingdom. First of all we looked at how Jesus whole purpose for coming was to establish a kingdom which Adam had effectively lost. If Jesus had not done this there would be no rescue, redemption or resurrection. Everything really hinged on Jesus defeating sin and death. Through Adam sin and death entered the world and passed to all mankind. Jesus fulfilled the role of the second Adam and lived a life of perfect obedience to God’s law. This qualified Jesus as our perfect representative to conquer sin and death through His atoning death on the cross. This was the defeat of Satan. Jesus took back the rulership of this world. He now rules and reigns at the right hand of God. While men continue to rule in rebellion against God, Jesus continues to reach into the hearts of men and bring them new life. Effectively Jesus changes people from the dominion of darkness to the the kingdom of light and life. But we are not just made a part of the kingdom Jesus is establishing. The Bible talks about us reigning with Christ. Paul in addressing conflict in the church in Corinth asked, “If they knew we would judge angels?” To be a judge one needs to be in a position of authority. The Bible also talks at multiple places about us being given crowns. The concept of a crown almost always implies rulership. The Bible also talks about the kingdom of God as being a kingdom which has no end. This suggest to us a kingdom which is ever expanding. God’s ultimate plan is for His people who are part of Jesus bride to rule the nations. It will be an awesome privilege to be given an assignment by God. God’s assignments for us will be fulfilling and exciting and perfectly suited for each one of us. They will also draw us more deeply into praise and worship of God because His plan and our assignments will show us all how well He knows us and gives us the very things our hearts desire. During our journey through this study of what the Bible says about heaven I have received multiple questions from a variety of people. I want to take a few weeks and look in more detail at some of those questions through the lens of scripture

We worked through the details surrounding the items which held water. The massive sea which was really about the size of the average backyard swimming pool. This was used for the cleansing of the priests. The 10 basins which each held 240 gallons and were used for the ritual cleansing needed in some of the sacrifices. The basins and the sea were all cast in bronze. This should remind us of judgement. Also water itself is a sign of judgment. It certainly sustains life but it can also take life. The earth and all life on it were destroyed by the world wide flood. Pharaoh’s army was destroyed in the waters of the red sea. The bronze sea is a reminder that the power of water and judgement is in the hand of God. Even today in baptism we use water to remind us of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. We enter into the waters of baptism and are identified with Christ as we are raised with him to newness of life. In a sense we symbolically face the judgement of God but are identified with Jesus and cleansed by His blood. There were also 10 lampstands of gold which were in the temple. 5 lining each side of the temple. These lampstands were designed to remind us of trees. Most likely we should think of the tree of life. The tree which was in the garden of Eden is now before the throne of God and it found on both sides of the river of life which flows from the throne of God. These tree lampstands also give light in the darkness. These speak of Jesus in the sense that they offer light to men who would otherwise dwell in darkness. Also Jesus offers life to those who turn to His light and follow Him as their Lord. The other thing which was important about all these furnishings is how a metal craftsman was used by God to bring glory to His name. The simple reminder here is how there is not the huge distinction we often make between the secular and the sacred. The work each person does can be a means used to bring glory to God.